When we were kids, my friend Catherine and I both spent a lot of time in doctor’s waiting rooms. This weekend on our retreat we were reminiscing about a book of stories we would read while waiting. The stories were always parables about good character, with a Christian flavor. There was a story about some [...]
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It’s like a virtual kick in the pants. Snarkier than Miss Snark, more deviant than The Elegant Variation, and pickier than the Rejecter, 101 Reasons to Stop Writing will give you a reason to go back to bed in the morning. Warning: Not for the easily offended. Or discouraged. (Thanks, Rachel!)
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Chapter IV opens with a long list of summer visitors to Gatsby’s house. Most of the names are humorous — Clarence Endive, George Duckweed, the Smirkes and the Leeches. Ripley Snell and Mrs. Ulysses Swett are involved in yet another of the book’s many car accidents. Finally Gatsby pays a visit to Nick with his [...]
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Deconstructionism is so 1985 — it’s time for a new literary theory. Jonathan Gottschall proposes literary Darwinism: By applying evolution-based thinking to fiction, we believe we can invigorate the study of literature, while at the same time mining an untapped source of information for the scientific study of human nature (see “Truth in fiction”). Darwinian [...]
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Happy Birthday to the First Amendment Monument! Click the thumbnails for larger images. And on the other side of the wall… Photos by Gary Glass
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Later today I will be leaving for our writing group’s first annual DIY retreat. I’m very excited and also nervous. Nervous because there’s so much to do before I leave (ergo, I blog); excited because there will be so much to do when we get there! I’m taking with me notes from old stories, my [...]
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Take a moment if you can to click over to this powerful photo of people paying their respects at Virginia Tech. From Left of the Dial.
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From The Chronicle of Higher Education: Amazon knows what you like. Or at least it thinks it does. Like a lot of online booksellers, Amazon keeps track of what you buy and suggests other items it thinks you might enjoy. The goal, of course, is to lure you into spending more money. Now a new [...]
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We meet the great man at last, in one of the most memorable chapters of The Great Gatsby — the party scene. The chapter opens with images of machinery and transformation: motor-boats, aquaplanes, electric juicers, and cars, cars, cars. The Gatsby estate is a Circe’s island of transformation where oranges are changed into pulp with [...]
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